Israel seems to have done what is necessary. Their northern border is under
constant attack from a terrorist regime which is not able to be controlled
by the Lebonese government. Israeli soldiers have been take hostage to be
used as bargaining chips for the release of Israeli held prisoners. Israel
is appropriately not going to negotiate with terrorists on such terms. If
Quebec had been an out of Canadian control terrorist province that was
threatening the entire Northeastern USA, I'd hope - nay, expect - for theUS
government to take aggressive military action. Every country has the right
to defend itself.

They've *already* warned us they are not putting up
with any more US aggression in the Middle East, and
have created a reverse "containment" situation around
the Middle East.

Putin says he suspects a wider Israeli agenda, and the
Russian defense minister says ``basically, a war that
has begun'' and that others might be drawn into the
fight.

Israel has already stated that if they could not get
the US to nuke the crap out of Iran, they would take
care of these matters themselves. I suppose they
intend to keep pounding Lebanon until other Arabs join
in, since what choice will anyone have except to try
to stop Israel militarily. Then, of course, Israel,
having nukes, will nuke Iran's nuclear reactors, etc.,
but the only way Israel can hope to win is if America
joins in, contrary to what they claim.

Americans don't give a crap. True. We don't even
know Israel has ZERO lotalty to Americans and has sold
us out a number of times. Israelis think we are
fools, and they're right. Israel, however, will in
the end win The Stupid Contest, because they're
wagging a paper tiger at China and Russia.

KMDickson
============July 15, 2006
Attention Deficit Americans Are Being Misled to War
by Paul Craig Roberts

A terrible thing is happening, and not enough
Americans are aware to be able to do anything about
it. Zionists in Israel and in the Bush administration
are leading America into war with Iran, Syria,
Hizbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine. The
consequences for America, Israel and the Middle East
will be disastrous, but as long as Washington is in
thrall to Zionist paranoia, nothing can be done about
it. Bush made this clear on July 14 when he rejected
the plea from Lebanon's prime minister to pressure
Israel to stop its attack on Lebanon.

The war began when Bush's neoconservative government
invaded Afghanistan and Iraq under the pretense of
"fighting terrorism." Neither front has gone well for
America. The Israelis, seeing the growing domestic
opposition to Bush's wars of choice, concluded that
they are in danger of losing America's military
intervention in behalf of their Middle East interests.
Israel decided to force the issue.

Israel did this by bombing and invading Gaza, from
which they had just withdrawn as part of a
"Palestinian settlement." Israel's pretext was the
capture of one Israeli soldier in Gaza in retribution
for Israel's genocidal policies toward Palestine. Few
Americans know that Israel has forced Palestinians
into ghettos and walled them off from their farm
lands, schools, and medical treatment.

By slaughtering scores of civilians and destroying the
infrastructure of the fragile land in response to the
capture of one Israeli soldier, Israel has made it
clear that its policy is fire and sword.

Under international law - the identical law that was
used to try Nazi war criminals after World War II -
Israel's invasion of Gaza is a monstrous war crime.
The United Nations top humanitarian official, Jan
Egeland, said that Israel's attacks on civilians and
infrastructure violated international law.

On July 13, the UN Security Council tried to condemn
Israel for its criminal invasion of Gaza, but US
Ambassador John Bolton, a rabid pro-Israeli zealot,
vetoed the Security Council resolution that would have
required Israel to halt its illegal and criminal
actions in Gaza. Bolton is the UN ambassador who could
not get confirmed even in a Republican Senate and was
given a recess appointment by Bush in defiance of
Congress.

On July 12, Israel invaded Lebanon. The pretext was
the capture of two Israeli soldiers in
Israeli-occupied Lebanese territory by Hizbollah. In
two days Israel has slaughtered scores of Lebanese
civilians, destroyed bridges and power plants,
attacked the Beruit International Airport and blocked
Lebanese ports.

Israel's over-reactions are calculated to start a
wider war. Israel has asserted that the two soldiers
captured by Hizbollah are being held in Iran. Israel
blames Syria for Hizbollah's acts. Both Israel and its
neoconsevative allies in the Bush government blame
Iran and Syria for "attacks on Israel" by Hamas and
Hizbollah. No one, least of all Bush, blames Israel's
Palestinian policy.

Israel's American agents, the neoconservatives, have
made it clear for years that their goal is to
eliminate every Middle Eastern government that is not
ruled by an American puppet friendly to Israel. The
people who hold the important positions in Bush's
government have frankly stated this position over and
over. For example, a decade ago in 1996 a group of
American neoconservatives who have comprised much of
the sub-cabinet in the Bush administration wrote that
Israel could gain American sympathy by blaming
aggression on Hizbollah, Syria, and Iran and then
seizing the strategic initiative by "engaging
Hizbollah, Syria, and Iran as the principal agents of
aggression in Lebanon."

First, however, Iraq would have to be taken out. The
first focus, said the neocons, should be "on removing
Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq - an important
Israeli strategic objective in its own right."

Gentle reader, does it not strike you as strange that
US citizens, most of whom have held presidential
appointments in the Bush administration, are so
concerned to plan how Israel can draw upon US blood
and treasure to achieve Israel's objectives in the
Middle East?

We certainly have to hand it to Israel and its
American neoconsevative agents. They have succeeded on
entirely false pretenses in launching two wars in the
Middle East and now they have prepared the ground for
a general conflagration.

Who is to stop them? The Condi Rice State Department?
Be serious.

The Democratic Party? What a laugh!

The power mad Republicans who have sold their souls?

The Christian Evangelicals who believe the destruction
of huge numbers of people in the Middle East is the
lead up to "the Rapture" in which they will be wafted
up to Heaven?

The UN Security Council, where the US never fails to
veto any resolution or sanction against Israel?

The US and Israel haven't the troops needed to defeat
and occupy Syria, Hizbollah and Iran with conventional
forces. Pentagon documents have described two ways in
which the Middle East can be secured for Israel. One
is the use of nuclear weapons. The other is the
destruction of all infrastructure - power plants,
water and sewage systems, hospitals, schools, roads,
bridges, ports, and a reduction of much housing to
rubble by powerful conventional bombs. In other words,
an air war that never ends.

Most Americans are incapable of identifying their own
US Representative and Senators. Everything they "know"
about the Middle East comes from Israeli propaganda:
Israel is the innocent victim, and all Arabs are
terrorists with suicide bombs.

America is being led by a handful of traitors into
participating in "regime change" that might succeed or
might dethrone our bought and paid for puppets in
Egypt, Pakistan, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. If Pakistan
were to fall to Islamist forces, Muslims would have a
nuclear capability as a counterpart to Israel's and
America's.

Muslims have many reasons to hate us for generations
of oppression and interference in their internal
affairs. As Iraq has proven, it is not easy to break
their spirit. Out-gunned and out-manned, they still
resist, motivated by anger and pride.

Many Americans may think that "ragheads" mean nothing
to them. But when $200 oil means Americans cannot
commute to their jobs in their gas-guzzlers from their
far-flung suburbs, or Russia and China intervene
because American-Israeli interests conflict with their
own, the world becomes a different place for
inattentive, uninvolved, complicit Americans.